Question 3b

(Assignment): The last three plays we read by Eugene O’Neill—Long Day’s Journey into Night, Ah! Wilderness, and A Moon for the Misbegotten—used three narrative genres—tragedy, comedy, and romance—to represent the same subject matter of his family or, more broadly, the American family. Identify, compare, and evaluate some of the tragic, comic, and romantic elements in these plays (and others, if you have time) as they deal with similar subject matter, either the particular stresses of the O’Neill family or the more universal problems of the American family.

(Sample Student Submissions)

(Student authors are identified by initials after selections)

Eugene O’Neill uses his plays to explore the triumphs and tribulations of his family, as well as the American family.  He uses comedy, tragedy, and romance to exemplify the problems faced in everyday life.

            Long Day’s Journey into Night  takes a tragic look at family life.  Throughout the play, O’Neill demonstrates his personal issue growing up in a dysfunctional household.  He has an overbearing father, morphine addict mother, alcoholic, lazy brother, and he himself is ill.  An aspect of each of these strong personalities can be found in American families, but not always to this extreme.  LDJ explores the issue of blame within the nuclear family.  Each person’s defect can be blamed on themselves and at least one other member of the family.  O’Neill further complicates these issues with the family’s  inability to acknowledge the problems.  Every time someone starts to point out an obvious problem, the issue is glossed over, and the subject is changed.  These same behaviors can be seen in all families.  For example, when my family gathers for the holidays, there are certain things/people we just don’t talk about.  I think that on some levels it a natural habit for families to avoid confrontation by not facing problems.  Like the Tyrone’s, many American families practice the philosophy of “if you ignore it, it will go away.”  O’Neill proves with LDJ that family problems are only compounded by not facing them.

            O’Neill continues this look at family life in Ah, Wilderness!   Ah! takes a lighter look at the same issues faced in LDJ.  For example, Jamie in LDJ is a drunk bum.  Uncle Sid (Ah!) too posses the same personality traits as Jamie, but does not take on the same destructive nature as Jamie.  According to Aristotle’s poetics’ “Comic characters posses some defect or ugliness that is not painful or destructive.”  Uncle Sid exemplifies this theory.  His drunkenness comes off as comical.  He portrays the comic crazy uncle, and while being drunk is viewed as destructive in LDJ, it is used in Ah! for comedic purposes.  Ah!  takes less extreme view of “normal” family life.  It address some serious issues, but never takes a tragic turn.

            O’Neill further demonstrates his ability to capture behaviors of the American family in Moon for the Misbegotten.  This play is the perfect blend between the comic and tragic elements of family life.  The witty banter between Josie and her father and Josie and Tyrone  is a continuation of the comedy seen in Ah!  While this play may appear to be a comedy, O’Neill also tackles serious issues.  The character of Jamie in this play, and his personal problems from LDJ have now been compounded with the guilt of his mother’s death.  Again, O’Neill brings up the issue of blame.  In some aspects, Jamie blames himself for his mother’s death.  He started drinking again when she fell ill, and was too drunk to go to her funeral.  Jamie has killed himself inside through guilt.  Moon most accurately demonstrates the “good times and bad” experienced by every family.

            Eugene O’Neill uses his ability as a playwright to exemplify the varying aspects of the American family, as well as his own family.  He acknowledges that everyday family life is both comic and tragic.  His plays not only show the extremes (LDJ and Ah!), but also a happy-medium between the two (Moon).  Real life is marked by the ups and down experienced personally and in the family.  O’Neill captures these moments in his plays Long Day’s Journey into Night, Ah, Wilderness!, and Moon for the Misbegotten. [JL 02]

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Eugene O’Neill’s plays Long Days Journey Into Night, Ah, Wilderness! and A Moon for the Misbegotten let the reader into the dynamics of his family.  LDJ portrays the family more realistically because O’Neill does not set out to lighten moments to ease the heavy tragic feel.  The play shows a family that would today be called dysfunctional, but is plain and simply messed up beyond repair.  The most eerie moment for me, as the reader, is the realization that O’Neill has given the dead baby his name.  The tragedy of the play is the many problems that hang over this family.  Mary is a morphine addict, which is a family problem yet also social because it is not accepted behavior.  Jamie is a drunk with a wicked tongue.  In tragedies there is usually justice in the end, but in this case there is not justice for the characters only heartache.

            For O’Neill’s real family there is a short period of justice after his father dies and this is written about in A Moon.  This “justice” is the ability of both Mary and Jamie to overcome their addictions and have a life with some happiness.  LDJ is an epic in tragedy because any attempts at humor, by Jamie or anyone else, falls flat with the overall oppressiveness.  When Jamie tells about the day he walked in on his mother shooting up and how he had believed that only hookers did that the audience/reader is faced with Jamie’s reality.  Edmund finds that his mother did not start using morphine until after his birth.  In his mind, and everyone else’s it seems, her addiction is his fault.  Mary’s addiction cripples her mind and lets her only see what she does not have.  These characters are not built around tragedy they are tragedy.

            Although tragic elements appear in Ah, Wilderness! it is understood to be a comedy.  The comedy seems to follow the standard elements like scenes with food, family picking on one another and a character that plays the fool.  The maid, Cathleen, adds moments of physical comedy along with brother and sister tickling scenes.  Mr. and Mrs. Miller give an overall since of comedy because they make everything all right.  It is never believed by the reader that anything bad can happen to this family.  In the end they retire for bed and the reader is sure that all is well and everything will turn out okay.  The most comedic scene of the play is the dinner.  The standard element of food is present along with the physical aspect of the incompetent maid.  The humor continues with the drunk Uncle and not altogether sober father.  The reader is further entertained when the realization about the bluefish is discovered.  This make believe family gives the reader a feeling of watching television.  No one is altogether “bad” and vices are not painful enough to truly hurt anyone.

O’Neill splits members of his family into two or more characters in order to create this humorous family.  He continues the humor in A Moon for the Misbegotten with the characters of Josie and her father, but the humor is over shadowed by the romance between Josie and Jamie.  There is a constant undercurrent of romance throughout the play.  Josie’s father refers to her feelings for Jamie many times and when the time finally comes for their night together Josie has gone out of her way to make herself attractive.  When O’Neill writes about her appearance he wants the audience/reader to understand that Josie took great pains to look appealing.  The disappointment that she feels when he does not show is painful for the audience/reader to “see.” 

This disappointment is relieved when Jamie does show and for a few hours they share the romance that both characters need.  This romance and the transcendence of both characters is something understood by the audience.  There are different kinds of love and the physical part is minor in comparison to making a substantial connection with another human being.  This is the love that O’Neill is portraying so believably.  Jamie will not survive much longer, but he has attained something that he has needed.  Josie has given him the gifts of understanding, forgiveness and love.  She has taken on the role of mother and lover during the final scenes enabling Jamie to achieve a sunrise that is not gray. 

In all three plays there is tragedy, comedy and romance.  The overall feel of LDJ is tragic, but in the end there is a feeling of romance.  Mary, through her drug-induced haze, has a moment of transcendence.  When the pig story is relayed to Tyrone there is comedy, but the reader is never taken too far away from the tragedy.  Ah, Wilderness! is a comedy, but the reader is also given moments of tragedy, especially between Uncle Sid and Aunt Lily.  They will most likely never come together because of his drinking, but their attraction is evident.  However, the romance between Richard and Muriel accomplishes what Lily and Sid cannot, it gives the reader hope.  The final description of Richard also achieves the romantic transcendence that is necessary for true romance.  All three plays have all the elements that are needed to satisfy tragedy, comedy and romance.  O’Neill brings the reality of his family to the foreground allowing the reader to identify and embrace the characters. [LR 02]

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